Gazprom Energy offers fixed gas tariff to protect UK businesses

UK based business energy provider Gazprom Energy is offering a new gas tariff it calls Shield to protect mid-sized businesses from rising gas prices

The new product enables customers to fix their gas price for up to two years, according to the company’s statement.  The company says, as much as 25% of the business gas bill can be made up of third party charges covering transportation, distribution, loss/theft and meter reading. In recent years, these charges have risen by more than 15%, forcing the overall cost of business gas to rise beyond all expectations.

The new fixed price business gas tariff will help protect against these uncertainties.

Gazprom Energy supplies gas and electricity to more than 11,000 UK public and private sector organizations. It said Shield had been specifically developed for customers consuming medium volumes of gas annually (500,000 -- 15 million KWh gas typically) who are looking to achieve more budget certainty, the WSJ reports.

"While fixed-prices are usually targeted at the smaller end of the commercial energy market we've seen growing demand from customers in the mid-market. We expect Shield to be particularly popular in the public sector where energy buyers are under pressure to keep expenditure within forecast limits," says Dale Marriott, UK head of operations at Gazprom Energy.

The Shield tariff is introduced after world largest gas exporters gathered in Moscow this week. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has called on gas producers to create conditions to reduce excessive price volatility and increase transparency throughout the industry.